Conceptual Metaphor Interpretation in Iranian Students of English as a Foreign Language

This research investigated interpretation of the second language metaphor in Persian-English bilinguals within the theory of conceptual metaphor founded by Lackoff and Johnson (1980). Because of the complex construction ground and cultural variance of conceptual metaphors, interpretation of some novel sentences or even ordinary language causes confusion to second language learners. Sixteen English metaphorical sentences based on four generic conceptual metaphors were selected and presented in a test paper with a forced-choice task and an explanatory task. Fourty Adults with different English proficiency level participated in the experiment. Results show that L2 proficiency poses effect on metaphor interpretation. Participants with higher English proficiency had better performance. Apart from English proficiency, different perceptions on ordinary experience and L1 and L2 lexicon size among individuals play a role in the metaphor interpretation process. Although the present study primarily aims at investigating personal properties taking part in the process, context in sentences is found to affect some subjects’ choices.